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Friday, August 31, 2012

Asian nations edge towards giant free trade zone

SIEM REAP, Cambodia:
Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world's population have agreed
"in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, the
secretary-general of ASEAN said on Friday.

Trade ministers from
the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their
counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New
Zealand will press their leaders to start talks on the trade zone at a
regional summit in November, Surin Pitsuwan told AFP.

The move
towards establishing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
(RCEP), made during a meeting in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap
on Thursday, was hailed by Surin as "a big achievement".

The
proposal could transform the region - containing around 3.5 billion
people - into an integrated market with a combined Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) of $23 trillion, a third of the world's current annual
GDP, he said.

"This
idea of trying to string together all these FTAs in existence into one,
in principle now it's been agreed," Surin said on the final day of a
week-long gathering of ASEAN economic ministers.

The pact will
aim to eliminate trade barriers, create a liberal investment environment
and protect intellectual property rights, according to the negotiation
guidelines.

"This is a bold move to deepen integration in the
most dynamic region in the world," New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser
said in a statement on his government's website.

"It shows that despite the economic difficulties in other parts of the world, Asia is actively pursuing trade liberalisation."

Progress
on the proposed RCEP trade deal, where China will be a dominant power,
comes as the United States is leading a push to create a vast
trans-Pacific pact with at least 10 other economies, including four
ASEAN members.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has emerged as
a trade priority for US President Barack Obama, who has cast the mooted
pact as a way to boost US exports and jobs while preserving labor and
environmental standards.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, who
attended this week's trade talks in Cambodia, said there was room for
both trade initiatives.

"We seem them as complementary, not necessarily competition," he told reporters.